Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a filling machine for filling in particular flowable products into packaging containers, where the filling machine comprises a plurality of parallel-running conveyor lines to which packaging jackets are supplied for producing the packaging containers and along which the packaging jackets or the packaging containers produced therefrom are conveyed in a conveying direction as well as a method for conveying packaging jackets or packaging containers produced therefrom through such a filling machine.
Description of Prior Art
Filling machines for filling flowable products, in particular, liquid foodstuffs, into packaging containers consisting of cardboard composite material are known from the prior art. For the structure of known filling machines, reference is made, for example, to EP 0 936 992 B1 and DE 41 42 167 C2. The known filling machines usually have a plurality of, for example, four to six parallel-running conveyor lines, also designated as filling lanes, to increase the productivity.
The usually rectangular packaging containers are only produced from packaging blanks provided with folding grooves and stuck together to form packaging jackets in the filling machine on account of the better transportability.
The flat-folded packaging jackets which are combined to form packets, are fed from one of the number of magazines corresponding to the quantity of conveyor lines to the conveyor lines to produce the packaging containers. In the magazines the packaging jackets are arranged as a stack, usually upright, one behind the other. The respectively front packaging jacket is removed from the magazine by means of a removal and unfolding apparatus known per se, which unfolds the packaging jacket to form a tube having a rectangular cross-section.
In the unfolded form, each packaging jacket is transferred by a transport device. The transport devices convey the packaging jackets as well as the packaging containers produced therefrom along the parallel conveyor lines each running in a vertical plane. Along the conveyor lines, the packaging jackets and the packaging containers produced therefrom are sterilised, filled and sealed. The packaging base and therefore the packaging container are usually manufactured immediately before filling.
In particular, transport wheels or circulating conveyor belts having pocket-like receptacles for the packaging containers are used as transport devices. The stepwise-rotating transport wheels have a plurality of parallel receptacles extending radially outwards, whose spacing in the axial direction of the transport wheel corresponds to the spacing of the conveyor lines. The arms are usually configured as mandrels which engage in the unfolded packaging jackets or in the packaging containers; we then talk of a mandrel wheel. In another embodiment of the transport wheel, each receptacle comprises a plurality of arms or profiles which come to rest against the outer side, in particular against the edges of the unfolded packaging jacket or the packaging container. In this case, the receptacles form neighbouring cells into which the unfolded packaging jackets or packaging containers can be inserted; we then also talk of a cell wheel.
If packaging containers having a square cross-section are formed from the flat-folded packaging jackets, the flat-folded packaging jackets are twice as wide as their side edges. If packaging containers having a rectangular cross-section are formed from the flat-folded packaging jackets, the size of the flat-folded packaging jackets is obtained from the sum of the wide plus the narrow lateral edge of the packaging jacket.
As a result of the dimensions of the flat-folded packaging jackets, the adjacently disposed magazines accommodating the upright packaging jackets require a relatively large width dimension of the magazine unit from which the conveyor lines adjoining the respective magazine extend rectilinearly as far as the removal from the filling machine. Due to the design, known multi-track filling machines therefore have a large floor area and as a result, a large construction volume.
The large construction volume of known filling machines is responsible for high machine and operating costs. The accessibility for maintenance and cleaning work, particularly to the central conveyor lines is partially restricted from the longitudinal sides of the filling machine. Furthermore, the cleaning and sterilisation of large sterile areas incurs high costs which result on the one hand from the gas volume for the required sterile gas during the filling process and on the other hand from the cleaning expenses between the filling processes.